Bulletin of Christian Persecution August 31 – October 6, 2012

Bulletin of Christian Persecution

August 31 – October 6, 2012

August 31, 2012Pakistan (h/t to thereligionofpeace ) The young Christian Faisal Masih was killed two days ago in shots fired in the attack of an Islamic extremist group in the Christian suburb of Essa Nagri, on the outskirts of Karachi.

September 2, 2012Egypt Shells fired Sunday morning from Syria appear to have targeted Our Lady of the Castle Maronite monastery in the town of Menjez in the Akkar district near the Lebanese Syrian border , National News Agency reported.

“A large number of shells coming from the Syrian side landed on Lebanese border villages and towns adjacent to the Al-Kabir River. The town of Menjez where the Christian Maronite monastery Our Lady of the Castle is located witnessed the most intense shelling resulting in the displacement of many residents who headed for safer areas,” NNA reported.

September 3, 2012Bahrain Hardline Sunni clerics have strongly opposed the construction of a large Roman Catholic church complex, in a rare open challenge of the country’s Sunni king. More than 70 clerics signed a petition last week saying it was forbidden to build churches in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.

September 13, 2012Egypt (h/t to JihadWatch) The largest evangelical church in the mid-east was attacked with stones and gas bombs. Worshippers locked themselves inside the church and put on masks to avoid gas poisoning.

September 25, 2012Syria (h/t JihadWatch ) Christians kidnapped in the village of Rableh, on the border with Lebanon, in western Syria, spreads: after the maxi kidnapping which occurred yesterday, of 150 people (see Fides article 25/9), today another 130 civilians were detained and kidnapped by armed gangs in the area, creating a group of 280 hostages.

September 26, 2012Spain (h/t to Vlad Tepes) A Moroccan attacked a Catholic church in Catalonia.

September 27, 2012 From Africa to Asia offended Muslims vented their anger on Christians and their churches.

September 29, 2012Egypt The United States warned on Saturday that U.S. women Christian missionaries in mainly Muslim Egypt face threats of terror attacks and urged vigilance.

“The embassy has credible information suggesting terrorist interest in targeting U.S. female missionaries in Egypt,” the American mission in Cairo said in a statement on its website.

Egypt Copts in the North Sinai border town of Rafah have started leaving their homes after receiving an ultimatum from Islamists to leave “within 48 hours” or be killed. According to confirmed reports 9 Coptic families have left the town. The remaining 23 Coptic families are still there, waiting to leave. The Copts are all confined to their homes, afraid to venture out. More HERE.

September 30, 2012 Maldives (h/t to thereligionofpeace) Customs officials at the Male’ Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) seized 11 books about Christianity, typed in Dhivehi, from a Bangladeshi expatriate who came to the Maldives via Sri Lanka.

Lebanon (h/t to thereligionofpeace) Two unknown assailants opened fire on a church in the town of Bqosta on Saturday night, According to the NNA, the assailants shot at the town’s Saint Joseph Church with hunting rifles, damaging the building’s windows.

Pakistan Pakistan Christians are under attack from Islamic extremists angry at the film US-made film, The Innocence of Muslims. Following the attack on St. Paul’s church in Mardan, a bishop was assaulted, beaten and injured. Local sources of the Vatican news agency Fides report that protestant bishop Naeem Samuel of the Trinity Evangelical Church Prayer, was attacked yesterday as he was leaving church in Youhanaabad

October 1, 2012Pakistan Three witnesses whose testimony could absolve a 14-year-old Pakistani girl facing life in prison have changed their statements. It’s the latest twist in the case of Rimsha Masih, a Christian teenager who was charged more than a month ago under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws for allegedly burning pages of Islam’s holy book for cooking fuel. She has denied the charges.

October 2, 2012Nigeria At least 25 [Christian] people were killed late Monday in what appears to be a systematic slaughter in Adamawa State in northern Nigeria. Locals say the victims, mostly college students, were individually questioned before being attacked.

Daniel Babayi, the executive secretary of the Northern States Christian Association of Nigeria, says he believes the killings were a reprisal attack after 156 people were arrested and accused of being members of the Islamist militant group known as Boko Haram late last month. Update HERE. And HERE.

October 3, 2012Egypt (h/t to thereligionofpeace) Two Egyptian Christian children, Nabil Rizk, 10, and Mina al-Farag, 9, have been taken from their parents and arrested after a Muslim man accused the two youngsters of desecrating the Qur’an.

October 6, 2012Egypt (H/t to thereligionofpeace) Gunmen opened fire on the home of a Coptic Christian in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, hours after a visit by President Mohamed Morsi to reassure Christian residents they would not be targeted again.

Syria (h/t to JihadWatch) The mother superior of a 1500-year-old monastery in Syria warned yesterday during a visit to Australia that the uprising against Bashar al-Assad has been hijacked by foreign Islamist mercenaries, with strong support from Western countries.

Mother Agnes-Mariam de la Croix was forced to flee to neighbouring Lebanon in June when she was warned of a plot to abduct her, after she revealed that about 80,000 Christians had been “cleared” by rebel forces from their homes in Homs province.